Daycares in Tennessee

Tennessee scores licensed daycares through two related programs. The Child Care Report Card evaluation is required for every licensed child care agency as part of licensing. The Star-Quality Child Care Program is voluntary and builds on the Report Card to assign a star rating. Centers that meet licensing only, or have disciplinary actions, receive 0 stars; centers that opt in and qualify receive 1, 2, or 3 stars (the highest designation), for four tiers in total. Ratings are based on a state inspection plus a quality assessment across child-staff interactions, classroom layout and use of space, health and safety practices, and age-appropriate learning activities, with trained assessors conducting classroom observations.

Tennessee's minimum legal requirements for adult-to-child ratios and group sizes can meet the standards published by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), the leading professional accreditation body for early-childhood programs and the most widely cited benchmark for high-quality care, in the youngest age bands depending on which grouping chart a center uses, but its pre-service training requirement for lead teachers is among the lightest in the country. Tennessee lets centers pick between two grouping charts. Under Chart 1, infants (6 weeks to 15 months) are capped at 1:4 in groups of 8 and toddlers (12 to 30 months) at 1:6 in groups of 12 — both matching NAEYC. Under Chart 2, infants and toddlers (6 weeks to 30 months) can be combined at 1:5 in groups of 10, which does not match NAEYC's infant cap. For preschool, the state sets ratios of 1:9 at age 3 (better than NAEYC's 1:10), 1:13 at age 4, and 1:16 at age 5 (both above NAEYC's 1:10). Preschool group sizes are capped at 18 for 3-year-olds and 20 for 4- and 5-year-olds (at or just under NAEYC's cap of 20). The state does not set a single rule on lead-teacher credentials. Tennessee does not require a specific number of clock hours of pre-service training for lead teachers beyond an orientation in safety topics recognized by the Department, which is lighter than what most states require and well below the bachelor-degree training NAEYC expects of lead teachers. Required ongoing professional development is 12 hours per year, below NAEYC's recommended 25.

These minimum legal requirements apply to every licensed daycare in Tennessee, regardless of its Star-Quality rating. They are one of the Structural inputs in every Childery rating shown above. The rating distribution above combines that Structural input with Star-Quality scores and other Process inputs to produce the Overall scores. For the full breakdown, see the Tennessee methodology page.